


On the Home Front

by sbarmarj



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Families of Choice, Women Being Awesome, ladies of the mcu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:11:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4691648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbarmarj/pseuds/sbarmarj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You do have the most incredible affect on men. When I started to date Clint I could see that the women at SHIELD pitied me playing second fiddle to you.” </p>
<p>Laura didn’t sound bitter or resigned to Nat’s status in Clint’s life. She found the whole situation amusing, even now after a dozen years of marriage. Its probably why her relationship with Clint lasted whereas his marriage to Bobbi had been a disaster from the start. </p>
<p>“Or maybe it’s that my son has a way with women.”</p>
<p>Nat smiled, “I cried when you agreed to marry Clint.”</p>
<p>Laura Barton and Natasha Romanov share many things, including a family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Home Front

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. So let me know if you find any glaring typos or grammar issues.

Nat awoke slowly. Sun was streaming through the homemade curtains and she could hear distant chattering in the kitchen. The kids knew to be quiet, but Laura discouraged outright stealthy behavior. It put Nat and Clint on edge more that the sound of backpacks being tossed down the stairs. 

She stretched and cataloged the minor twinges and tight muscles that marked the injuries Nat was recovering from. She could have stayed at the compound, but it was too quiet when the others were out in the field, and she had wanted to come home. 

Laura managed things beautifully on her own, which Clint knew, but he liked it when one of them checked up on their family. Since he was still on assignment in Brazil, Nat was the one at the farm.

The kitchen door swung open and slammed shut several times. Probably Callum starting to walk to the bus stop, remember he forgot his lunch, going back and then forgetting to make sure the door closed quietly. Ten year old boys were almost worse than new recruits. 

The house quieted with the older kids headed to school. Nat knew Laura was puttering in the kitchen, cleaning up cereal bowls and putting half-finished art projects away. The baby was probably with her, in his jumper seat, bouncing off some of his Barton energy.

Nat felt no pressure to formally get up, and enjoyed lazing in her bed on the well laundered cotton sheets she prefered and under the quilts Laura had chosen for her. She had not chosen this room for herself. Clint had bestowed it on her and then expected that Nat would enjoy decorating it as much as he liked fixing up the rest of the property. She didn’t know the first thing about decorating when it wasn’t an assignment. 

It was Laura who chose to leave up the dated wallpaper, and who found the old spooled bedframe in the attic. She decided that Nat didn’t need a beautiful room--she need a room that was real, with all the dinges and scratches that implied. Nat had never had a dresser with a bottom drawer that opened only with finesse and a certain amount of praying. Her desk was an old door on top of some borrowed saw horses and it was slightly uneven. 

Nat loved her room. 

The old stairs creaked as Laura walked up them. Nat and Clint never mention fixing the squeaky steps, and Laura never suggests it when Clint is looking for a new project. They all knew it was an easy concession to the spies inherent paranoia.

Laura knocked gently on Nat’s door and entered without waiting for a response. Generally Nat disliked people who did not respect boundaries. It wasn’t so much that Laura disrespected Nat’s hard won privacy as that Laura had reworked those boundaries so that she was inside Nat’s walls.

Laura smiled at Nat who was splayed across the bed like a redheaded starfish. When left to her own devices Nat was a notorious bed hog. It was one of Clint’s more infamous complaints about her when they were out on missions. 

“Here watch him for a minute.” Laura deposited the baby on the bed next to Nat and headed out the room. Petey registered the change in caretaker with wide eyes. He looked at Nat and scrunched his nose just like his sister Nicole use to do before deciding to cry.

“Now, none of that little boy.” As is her custom Nat speaks to the baby in her native Russian. She knows that it’s the sound of her voice that is reassuring and not the actual words. He doesn’t care that Nat sings him a lullaby about Baba Yaga and her house with chicken feet. 

Like all babies Petey was a narcissist and happy now that he has Nat’s full attention and devotion. He did not cry. Instead he cooed along with Nat’s soft singing. 

Nat wondered if he would like to draw like his sister, or have eyesight like his father. She rather thought this child would be the one that inherited Laura’s ability to instantly read situations, correctly anticipate what would happen, and when necessary manipulate the players to get what she wanted. 

Like her father, Nicole never did anything by halves. She would have cried no matter what Nat did to sooth her, and Callum had been too happy with life to even consider crying if he wasn’t desperately hungry. 

Already at four months, Petey knew what he wanted and was surprisingly adept at ensuring he got it. He was going to be a hard child to parent and Nat was thankful that they had already dealt with Callum’s energy and his sister’s determination. 

“He made you sing, didn’t he?” Nat nodded, and kept singing lightly. 

Laura was back with two steaming mugs of coffee. She placed one on Nat’s bedside table and crossed to the other side of the bed. She put down her own mug, fluffed the pillows, toed off her slippers and settled on the bed. 

“Sorry that he ended up Petey.”

Nat answered as soon as the lullaby finished. “Not your fault. There is no changing Nicole’s mind.” It was Nicole that looked at her new baby brother and declared that he was not Nate, but Petey and the name had stuck. 

Laura nodded. She was well aware of her daughter’s stubborn tenacity. Nicole had been a hellacious toddler, but her independent spirit and adventurous soul made for a joyful child. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Laura would’ve been a horrible field agent. Subtlety annoyed her, and she wasn’t known for her patience. She had been a brilliant analyst and Nat missed Laura’s neat summation of failed missions and unrivaled ability to wryly dismantle a bad plan. 

Nat sat up and helped Petey to stand and practice engaging his leg muscles. He was still all rolls and dimpled baby fat. 

Laura slowly drank the one cup of coffee that she allowed herself each day while breastfeeding and watch her son make eyes at Nat. 

“You do have the most incredible affect on men. When I started to date Clint I could see that the women at SHIELD pitied me playing second fiddle to you.” 

Laura didn’t sound bitter or resigned to Nat’s status in Clint’s life. She found the whole situation amusing, even now after a dozen years of marriage. Its probably why her relationship with Clint lasted whereas his marriage to Bobbi had been a disaster from the start. 

Petey gave his mother a gummy smile. 

“Or maybe it’s that my son has a way with women.”

Nat smiled since the baby was clearly a charmer like his mother. “I cried when you agreed to marry Clint.”

Laura startled at the information. She opened her mouth, Nat could hear her intake of breath and the moment that Laura stilled her tongue. The only one talking now was the baby babbling to himself. 

“I...Clint never told me.” Gone was Laura’s quiet confidence. Her voice had an honest edge that Nat had not heard before.

“I never told Clint.”

“Oh.”

“They weren’t tears of sadness.”

“I didn’t assume they were.” Laura sounded slightly insulted that Nat thought the clarification was necessary. “You have eaten at my table, cradled my children, and protected my husband. I know that you love him.”

“Most women would be threatened by that.”

Laura rolled her eyes. Nat had always been fascinated by Laura’s comfort with displaying her emotions. No one else in Nat’s life loved so openly, and displayed annoyance so quickly.

“Nat, I also know that you love me. Has it ever occurred to you that when I agreed to marry Clint I was happy to get you in the bargain?”

“Oh.”

“I can’t believe that we have never had this conversation.” Laura gave Nat a sharp and appraising look. 

Nat shrugged and started to bounce the baby who was getting slightly frustrated that the women were not focusing on him. She had never needed to talk about this before.

“I assumed you knew that I wouldn’t let Clint go even if he married you.”

“And thank god!”

Nat slowly stopped bouncing Petey and looked at his mother. 

“Its reassuring knowing that Clint has you, Nat. When Phil called to tell me he was compromised, I knew you would get him back. I know that you will always make sure my husband comes home.”

Nat had never thought of it like that before. She always figured Laura tolerated Nat taking Clint away, not that she trusted that Nat would bring him home. 

Petey started to scrunch his nose again. Nat kissed him on his pudgy cheek and started to sing another lullaby in Russian. Petey’s face relaxed when his mother’s voice joined his aunt’s. By the end of the song Petey’s eyes were fluttering heavily and he curled into Nat’s chest. 

“Your Russian is rusty.”

Laura laughed, “It’s not an in demand skill in Iowa.”

“You should practice more.”

Laura reached over and rubbed her son’s head. “Thats not my life anymore Nat. It was only a costume I borrowed for a time. Have you really spent fourteen years thinking that I was resigned to sharing my husband with you?”

Laura was almost impossible to distract. Clint could always find the shot, but Laura was the one who always knew when to take it.  
“No. I spent fourteen years assuming you merely tolerated me because you loved your husband.”

“Natasha…”

“Shhh...he’s drifting off.”

“You will not hide behind my son. Tell me what is the matter.”

Nat sighed and relished the fact that she felt safe enough for the honest reaction. She handed the baby to his mother and pulled the covers up to her shoulders. Petey stirred and quieted as Laura offered him her breast to nurse. 

It was ingrained in Nat to answer a superior’s direct command. “I assumed you would not let me come back now that you know everything that I am.”

Laura studied her son’s fingers wrapped around one of her own, and Nat watched his toes stretch and curl as his belly filled. 

“You made the decision to release the information, even though you thought it would cost you your home.” 

Nat could hear something in Laura’s voice that made the pit of her stomach drop and her shoulders start to relax at the same time. She didn’t know what to say to Laura so she just nodded. 

“Petey, never believe anyone who says your Aunt Nat is the smart one.” The baby kept nursing and gave no attention to his mother’s words. Laura turned her gaze to Nat, “It’s been a year. You’ve been here sixteen times since then and you still think that I might kick you out of our house?”

Nat realized the emotion in Laura’s voice was outrage. 

“Heros! You are all too tied up in your angst to think! Natasha, I may never have known the details before, but I knew who you were when I agreed to marry Clint. I knew who you were when I put my three hour old son in your arms. I knew who you were when I found this bed and put it in this room. I knew who you were when you taught Nicole the five basic ballet positions and I knew who you were when I named this child Nathaniel!”

Laura sighed and shifted her son to her other breast. “You are the bravest person I know Nat.”

“I’m a monster, Laura.”

“Then so am I. So is Clint. So are our children.” Laura’s voice was strong with anger, though none of it seeped into the gentle way that she cuddled her son. 

For the first time in this conversation Nat hid behind her widow’s mask.

“Don’t do that. Don’t run and hide like a coward now. We are a family--you, Clint, me and the kids. That means we are in this together and this is your home and nothing--NOTHING--you can ever do will change that!”

Laura efficiently covered her shoulder with a burp cloth and settled her son on top of it. She let her words sink in and watched Nat relax back into bed. After the second time Petey burped she placed him on the bed between them for his morning nap. 

Nat watched his chest rise and fall, much like how she watched his brother and sister sleep last night when she checked to make sure they were safely dreaming. 

Laura watched Natasha watching the baby and spoke again, “Does this have anything to do with Doctor Banner leaving?”

“No, of course not.”

“You’re lying.” 

Natasha knew Laura was the one when she correctly told Clint he was bluffing during a card game. Like a water-diviner Laura always seemed to sense the truth, even when it was buried. 

“I told him I was a monster like him.” Natasha took a deep breath. “And he still left.”

“Men!” Laura gently rubbed her son’s stomach. “Petey, I promise to do a better job raising you. I don’t know if Doctor Banner is a monster or not Nat, but I do know that he is a coward who doesn’t trust himself. He is not good enough for you.”

“He’s--

“Misunderstood? Complicated? In need of saving? So what? He still is an idiot and mostly he is not comfortable with himself.” Laura sighed and kept going, “Nat, you didn’t hesitate to show the world your deepest scars and worst sins when it was necassary. Like it or not, you know who you are and you do not compromise or change for anyone. Do you know why I agreed to marry Clint?”

“No.” Nat had always assumed it was because Laura loved Clint and he was a good man.

“I married Clint because he loved you. Any man who could accept you as his partner and acknowledge that you were better than him was a man secure enough to my husband.” Laura drained her coffee cup. “There is somebody out there for you. He won’t need you to be a monster for him to love you Nat. He will be a part of our family and I will love him because he loves you. I’ll even stop Clint from trying to scare him with trick shots.”

Nat just nodded at the other woman.

“You understand?” 

Nat nodded again. Laura picked up Petey who slept like the dead and had since he was five weeks old. 

“Good. I’m going to go put Petey in his crib for the rest of his nap. Why don’t you drink your cold coffee and get dressed? You can run some errands for me this afternoon and I promised Nicole that you would pick her up from school, and Callum wants you to go to his soccer practice.”

Laura didn’t wait for Natasha to agree and started to leave her room. “Laura I cried because I knew that I could love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because Natasha is way too cool for Bruce Banner, and she is not a monster. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
